The weather forecast, if accurate, suggests next week will dry up enough where we all can get back in the field.  Everyone will need to be running sprayers as weeds have not stopped growing.  I know everyone will be in a rush, but please, please take the time to be good stewards and apply herbicides as directed by the labels.

There have been more drift issues this spring than what we have experienced in the last 7 or 8 years. The weather this spring has been the main reason as there have been few good days to spray. Besides the time crunch, we have experienced many evenings and mornings where temperature inversions have occurred.  Those can be tricky to spot and have been the mechanism of off-target herbicides in some of the fields I have walked this spring.

During the burndown season, clethodim was the main off-target herbicide. Clethodim is not volatile but it can move a good distance if sprayed during periods of too much wind or can move even further if sprayed into a temperature inversion.

More recently the off-target herbicides have been either dicamba or 2,4-D.  They can go off target in two more ways than clethodim.  First, both dicamba and the ester formulations of 2,4-D are highly volatile and even if not sprayed into an inversion, they can pick up hours after application and wind up in a temperature inversion later and move great distances.

The second way they can get on the wrong field is if a non-labeled dicamba product is applied to Xtend crops or a non-labeled 2,4-D is applied to Enlist crops.  Generic formulations of dicamba and 2,4-D are often manufactured in the same facility. As such, some batches of generic dicamba may have small amounts of 2,4-D in them. The probability is also greater than zero that some generic 2,4-D formulations may contain small amounts of dicamba.  Besides being off label, this is another good reason to not use these formulations in traited crops.